8th
Breaking up with iPhoto.
I’m almost certainly done with iPhoto. I’ve used it since its introduction - and have been happy enough to continue doing so until this week - but our time together is over. Why? Well, here’s what happened. Hopefully my explanation will inform some solid recommendations for a replacement Mac OS image management tool.
Since it was released, I’ve used iPhoto to store my digital photos. I’ve never used it to manage other image files - just snapshots and slide scans. iPhoto filled my need for a go-to image browser. Now, if you’ve used iPhoto for any length of time, you’ve probably peered into the “iPhoto Library,” and, depending on the severity of your OCD, experienced varying levels of revulsion and fear at what you saw. As did I. But I’ve also poured more than enough of my time down the drain of computer directory structure maintenance, so I reasoned that if iPhoto would make my pics usable, I was willing to look past its idiosyncratic organizational mechanisms.
And so it went, basically without incident, until last week, when I tried to import an older library from a backup of my recently deceased iMac into a newer library on my work laptop. The experience is so broken, so user-ambivalent, I really don’t know where to begin. For starters, there is no automated way to merge libraries. I’m talking about the equivalent of iTunes’ “Consolidate Libraries” macro. No such thing. Next, iPhoto ‘08 appears unaware of previous versions’ file organization conventions. The result? iPhoto ‘08 imports thousands of thumbnails as if they’re originals, wreaking - as it turns out - practically irrevocable havoc on my iPhoto library. After all, there’s no “Undo incredibly, massively, stupid thing you just did,” command in iPhoto. At least none with my name on it.
After some investigation, I’ve resigned myself to manually removing each accidentally imported thumbnail by hand, at the Finder level, and starting from scratch - either with iPhoto or with another, better photo management tool. Earlier today, I asked the Twitter for some recommendations, and I got quite a few good ones. Based on your responses, it seems to boil down to a choice between Adobe Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture. I’ve downloaded and installed trials of each, and once I’ve finished cleaning up this mess iPhoto dumped in my lap, I’m going to give them a side-by-side, month-long test drive.
I’d really love to know what you like most about either. I’d love to know if any of you have suffered the same woeful fate at the hands of iPhoto. In particular, I’d love to know how you coped, and whether Lightroom or Aperture manage libraries any better than iPhoto.
Email me, maybe? I have a gmail by the same username. And thanks a ton for sharing your advice. It’s generous as hell, and I sincerely appreciate it.
